Melisa Rollins rolled off to a powerful begin of her new season with the Liv Racing Collective by taking second in January’s RADL GRVL in Australia, however her journey throughout the globe didn’t finish as effectively.
Rollins crashed on the 100km Otway Odyssey mountain bike race in Victoria in late February, and it turned out to be fall that meant as a substitute of heading into the US season with the benefit of southern hemisphere summer season of racing to provide her a head begin, she’ll now be lacking out on her deliberate opening occasion, Mid South Gravel, whereas dealing with an prolonged damage break.
“I really want this could possibly be a submit about how excited I’m to get the season going with Mid South Gravel this weekend… however sadly I received’t be racing for a short while,” mentioned Rollins in an Instagram submit this week. “Two weeks in the past on the Fast Ascent Otway Odyssey I launched myself off a bit curler and smashed into the touchdown at full pace — I hit the bottom so exhausting that I actually vomited.
“After many hospital visits it’s clear I’ve a damaged left wrist however I’ve been having some intense nerve ache in my proper hand/forearm as effectively which I’m nonetheless within the strategy of diagnosing.”
It’s a difficult place for final yr’s second-placed rider within the Life Time Grand Prix sequence to be in only a month forward of the opening spherical, the Sea Otter Basic on April 10, notably in a yr the place she has embraced the privateer path for off-road racing with a shift to the Liv Racing Collective, making the bounce from BlueRidge Twenty24.
Regardless of ending second on the six-event Life Time Grand Prix sequence in 2024 it wasn’t the best of begins for Rollins in 2024, who got here tenth on the opening spherical at Sea Otter and sat out the second spherical, Unbound, nonetheless her August win at Leadville Path 100 MTB was the turning level.
If Rollins is absent from Sea Otter this yr it is not going to rule her out of the sequence, as one spherical may be dropped, however she would must be again for the Unbound 200, the place she completed fifth in 2022, to be eligible for the sequence rankings. Unbound is on Could 31.
“I really feel fairly fortunate that I’ve been in a position to Gumby my means out of some nasty crashes all through the years principally unscathed, so I determine it’s about time my luck ran out. And although I believed I might escape coach time this yr with a winter journey to Australia, I suppose that received’t be the case,” mentioned Rollins.
“See ya once I see ya, gravel.”
